


Be My Baby In Bali

by jeffgangfan, madleidy



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Comfort, F/F, Fluff, I think it's nice, M/M, Snakes, This is a trip in the summer, a trip to Asia yeah, basically these dorks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-14
Updated: 2015-02-14
Packaged: 2018-03-12 09:54:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 13,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3352316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jeffgangfan/pseuds/jeffgangfan, https://archiveofourown.org/users/madleidy/pseuds/madleidy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nico and Percy went on a trip to Bali, the Asian Paradise. Of course with permission from Sally (she planned this together with Nico) and also Hades. Now that's worth concerning.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've been working on this fic for a horribly long time. For Percico weekend, which also landed on Valentine's day so...Happy Valentine's day to our dear shippers and also the two adorable dorks.
> 
> My Beta is: awkwardsleepyhead
> 
> My co-author: Fri13girl  
> She does not have an AO3 account but I'll include the link to her tumblr: http://fri13girl.tumblr.com/

It was official. Nico hated airports. They were noisy, there were a bunch of annoying and loud people, and everybody was in a rush, like they had somewhere important to be. Everybody in the airport seemed to be getting on Nico’s nerves. 

Or maybe he was just grouchy because he couldn’t take his Stygian Iron sword with him. He couldn’t risk using the Mist because he didn’t know how to use the Mist. So, Nico had no means of defending himself if some monster attacked, except for summoning skeleton warriors and possibly hellhounds. He doubted that they could resurface from the concrete floor, though. It was strange how he felt like he needed to defend himself and he blamed it on feeling ill at ease.

Nico was almost starting to wish that he just decided to shadow travel. But then he remembered all of the reasons that he chose not to shadow travel, and why he chose to go by plane.

He was tired of sitting at a bench alone with his suitcase and backpack, receiving glances from strangers. He hadn’t gone to the baggage check yet because he was waiting for someone.

Percy.

Nico was waiting for Percy Jackson. 

Supposedly, the two of them are going to Camp Jupiter via plane. In reality, they are going to Bali. Nico and Sally had planned this together. She’d had the idea that they get away for a while together after Nico explained his feelings for Percy, which were as complicated as the Gordian knot (with respect). The solution was to be straight-forward. He’d needed someone to talk to and give him some advice. After Percy and Annabeth broke up, Nico had wanted to try again with Percy.

To be honest, the most Nico hoped for on this vacation was that they could talk. They hadn’t really gotten the chance after the not-my-type thing because every time they reached that subject, Percy would go sidetrack.

“Nico! There you are!” Sally walked up to him smiling, as Percy trailed behind her with the same smile. He had a suitcase and backpack, too. “How are you?”

“I’m fine, Sally,” Nico said, standing up. “I’m ready to see Hazel.”

What both of them told Percy was that they were going to Camp Jupiter by plane because it was faster, and Nico didn’t want to shadow travel all that way, especially with a passenger who seemed to be afraid of shadow-traveling, like Percy.

“This is going to be a good spring break.” Percy grinned lazily. “I can’t wait to see Jason again. We’re totally going to have a swordfight rematch.”

“Do you have everything?” Sally asked Nico. He nodded.

“Yeah, I’ve got the boarding passes,” Nico affirmed. Sally slipped Percy’s passport into his hand without Percy seeing. Nico put it in his pocket, along with his own.

“Well, you two should get to the baggage check-in,” Sally said before hugging Nico, then Percy. “Have a nice time, boys!” She walked away after waving goodbye to them.

“Come on.” Nico picked up his backpack and suitcase. “Follow me.” Together, they walked to the baggage check-in. They waited in silence before Percy spoke up.

“So Nico, how have you been?” Percy asked awkwardly, scratching the back of his head. They haven’t seen each other in months and that seemed to hinder their casualness.

“Fine,” he replied. “Will and I are good friends. He’s taught me a few things about archery and first aid, which will probably come in handy.” He’d wanted to see if he could gauge a reaction from Percy when casually mentioning Will. He and Will were good friends, but they would never become more. The two of them were kind of like Percy and Annabeth; they were best friends, but it was better if they didn’t become more than that. “How about you?” Nico asked.

“Well, I haven’t failed every subject in school,” Percy said optimistically. “Annabeth has been helping me with homework and stuff like that. I joined my school’s swim and water polo teams. Good thing I’ve been getting the GPA to stay in both… Annabeth has really helped me.” Nico knew better than to be jealous. Annabeth had, a few months ago, come out as a lesbian, and was dating Reyna. The two were a good couple.

“That’s good,” Nico replied. Small talk wasn’t really the easiest thing for him. He shifted his weight. They were almost to the front of the line, thank the gods.

“What have you been up to?” Percy asked curiously.

Nico supposed that he probably shouldn’t say, ‘Oh, you know, just planning on taking you on a surprise trip to Indonesia to finally talk to you seriously about everything. Oh, by the way, your mother and I have been working on this together behind your back.’ It might make things more awkward.

“I’ve been running errands between the Underworld and Camp Half-Blood. I’ve also had a few conferences with Reyna and Jason with Annabeth. The four of us want to make sure that the Camps stay united. Both of the camps have also been communicating with the Amazons and Hunters of Artemis every once in a while too,” Nico explained.

“So that’s what Annabeth does with her weekends…” Percy muttered. “Do you go to her, or does she go to you?” 

“I go to her, usually,” he replied. “We keep Chiron on the phone just in case though.”

“I guess you’re still Ambassador to Hades.” Percy cracked a smile. Nico let himself smile too.

“I guess so.” He shrugged. The two of them neared the front of the line. Nico dealt with everything. The woman looked surprised that two teenage guys were traveling together, but she didn’t say anything besides asking if they had an adult with them, to which, the answer was no.

Free from the burden of their suitcases, Nico led Percy to security. They were greeted by another line. They had allowed an hour for them to get through security.

“Percy, there’s something I should tell you…” Nico said, reaching into his pocket for Percy’s passport.

“What?” Percy asked.

“We’re not going to Camp Jupiter,” Nico explained. “We’re traveling abroad.”

“To where?” Percy looked confused.

“It’s a surprise.” Nico smiled mysteriously. “Your mom and I planned this together.” He handed Percy his passport and pulled out his own.

“Where’d you get those?” Percy asked, gesturing at the passport and fake school ID that Nico pulled out.

“My father gave them to me,” Nico explained. “He’s also given me a bank account full of money, so this trip is no problem.”

“Wow…” Percy muttered, scratching his head. “I was not expecting this… Well, since we’re flying Air Asia, I guessed that we might have been taking a slight detour.” He had that lazy grin splattered on his face again. Nico chuckled.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: 

After eighteen exhausting hours on the plane, Nico was more than glad to be back on the ground - his element - again. It was fun with Percy insisting on taking selfies, countless thumb wrestling matches and awful jokes. Even three bottles of Mountain Dew couldn’t help Percy to stay awake (he said he was afraid), so he told Nico they should probably hold hands (“For greater goods, Nico.”). And they did.

Nico doubted Percy would remember, though.

The two had had to endure loads of tedious traveling and immigration procedure before they could have a rest at a small coffee shop. Feeling too tired to shadow travel to their hotel, Nico decided they might as well catch a cab just to find out there was no such thing in Kuta.

“Great, can you imagine a place without cabs?” Percy asked him, his voice showing that he was not annoyed, just tired. Bali seemed funny.

“After what I have been through years ago, this surprises me the least. I should have noticed this before, though,” Nico answered, stretching his arms as Percy finished his cup of coffee.

They arranged with the hotel to provide them with a pick-up service and not too long later, a middle-aged man showed up, introduced himself as “Marni” and helped them with their bags.

The streets in Bali were clean, just like those in New York, but they were less busy and actually gave people a new kind of sensation. They were inviting with beautiful flowers and trees along the pavements and the smell of sea was in the air almost all of the time. Percy seemed to be excited; it was like the sea scent refreshed him so he stuck his head out of the window and shouted.

Nico chuckled but he pulled the son of Poseidon in right after that.

“You go to the hotel first, yes?” Marni asked them, after a quick turn that caused Nico to be squeezed next to Percy.

“Y-Yeah,” Nico replied, feeling his face burning. “You know, the hotel Atanya?”

“Of course!” Marni answered eagerly. “Of course!”

“We arrived earlier than expected, didn’t we?” Percy whispered to him. Nico nodded.

“I’m kinda tired so… Let’s take a rest before doing anything else.” The son of Poseidon yawned, probably still suffering from the jet lag. This was nothing to Nico, though. 

With the amount of shadow traveling he had done lately, Nico’s body had learned to adjust to the surrounding environment faster than that of others.

Percy’s head rested on his shoulder for the rest of the trip to their hotel.

They whiled away the noon in their cozy room which was on the third floor of the beautiful hotel. The receptionists and assistants were very friendly and helpful, so Nico prided himself on having picked a nice hotel, which fortunately, did not cost much. 

“Want anything for lunch, Percy?” Nico asked, unpacking the clothes he needed for two days. Percy asked him why he did so and pouted when told they were not going to stay at Atanya the third day. 

“Aww… We’re not staying?”

“I have planned this up really carefully, you have nothing to worry about. It’s a surprise, you’ll see,” Nico said calmly, putting away his journal and sketchbook. “Now, lunch?”

“Uh… Sandwiches. We can finish each other’s-”

“Sandwiches. Frozen reference?” 

“I’m so glad I went with you.” Percy grinned as he stretched and reached for the TV remote. 

“Me, too,” Nico whispered, not letting the other raven-head hear that.

 

“The turtles are nice, aren’t they?” Nico asked, a little bit nervous back from their tour to the Turtle Island. He had to look the place up to make sure that it actually reserved turtles and tried to protect them from being endangered. Percy seemed to have enjoyed talking to the largest ones but Nico could swear he saw the son of Poseidon scowled on the boat trip. It must be for the oil-stained seawater. It was sad that even in Bali, the Asian Paradise, pollution still had its ugly, hideous vines.

“They are nice and are being taken care of well enough. A little annoyed by the camera flash but the workers noticed and have told the tourists to not use it.” Percy smiled happily. He raised his phone and looked at Nico.

“Not again! You’ve taken pics of me holding a turtle already!” Nico complained, hand instinctively flying to comb his rueful no-longer-undercut.

“You should take a look at yourself. You looked ridiculous!” Percy swept his finger across the small screen and Nico wanted to scream. He was being slapped by the turtle’s slimy limb, mouth agape due to being surprised.

“I’ll snap-shot something with you looking even more ridiculous than I was!” Nico yelled, trying to snatch the phone out of Percy’s grip. The green-eyed laughed as his friend fumbled with the seatbelt, landing on him but the son of Hades didn’t seem to care, he kept swatting his arm at the phone’s direction.

Marni eyed them from the rear-view mirror.

“Um…” Nico realized the awkward position both of them were in, he slowly slid back to his seat and buckled up instantly.

“You two friends?” Marni asked. “Or lovers?” 

“Woa-” Percy furrowed his eyebrows.

“Friends, we’re friends!” Nico shot immediately. He suddenly felt not ready to talk to Percy, fearing that the guy would be uncomfortable and elusive.

“Oh, you two look good together,” Marni told him, eyes not leaving the road. “In Bali, men love men and women love women. Men love women. Everyone loves here.”

“Yeah.”

“Now I take you to dinner, no?”

“Yeah, somewhere in Jimbaran beach, please,” Nico said before slumping back to his seat.


	3. Chapter 3

Nico desperately tried to focus on anything but Percy’s face, and the fact that the band was playing a love song. He could just tell that it was a love song, okay? 

He began thinking about the sand beneath his feet, the soft cushions of the chair, the conversations of people around him, the sound of the ocean behind him, and the sunset. He stared at his food, and focused on the taste. Percy, at the moment, was driving him crazy, and he needed a moment to calm down and focus on things other than Percy to keep himself anchored. Nico didn’t want to start accidentally making stuff up. He had to look for actual signs that Percy was interested in Nico, and not just think he was seeing them. If that happened, then his plan would go straight to Tartarus. 

Nico let out a silent prayer to Aphrodite that Percy would actually show signs, and not just be one of those unreadable people. 

“Nico, are you okay?” Percy asked, cutting into Nico’s musings, and making eye contact.

“Yeah, fine,” he said automatically, breaking the eye contact. “I’m fine.” Way to go, he thought. Now he thinks there’s something wrong with you. 

Nico forced a smile. Percy returned it. Nico took a bite of his food and watched Percy for a moment. The dim natural lighting didn’t really show off his sea green eyes, which Nico could get lost in, as if they were the real ocean. The candlelight lit up Percy’s face in a slightly romantic way. Who knew that firelight could make someone look attractive? Or maybe he was too infatuated; there was no escape for him. Percy glanced up from his plate, their eyes meeting. A smile grew on the older boy’s face.

“The sunset looks great tonight,” Nico blurted out. He blushed slightly. You look great, he wanted to say. To refrain from doing so and spoiling everything, he bit his lower lip.

“Yeah. The temperature and the ocean’s level really compliment that.” Percy replied. The two of them looked out at the sunset. Nico wanted this moment to last forever. A moment alone with Percy Jackson, where they could just be two guys on a semi-date. Semi because it probably didn’t register with Percy that this was a date. 

“How’s your food?” Nico asked. 

“It’s pretty good,” Percy commented, reaching his hand towards Nico ever so slightly. “How about yours?” 

“It’s nice,” Nico replied. 

“That’s good.” Percy placed a hand on Nico’s left hand, which was just sitting on the table, sending a feeling of electricity into Nico’s hand. “This is a great restaurant. I wish they had one of these over in New York. I’d go there all the time, if I had someone to go with.”

“You have Annabeth,” Nico pointed out. “I’m sure she’d appreciate going out to dinner with a friend.”

“Eh,” Percy shrugged. “She would appreciate it, but I’m talking about someone whom I’m involved with… Romantically.” It could have been a trick of Nico’s eye, but he thought that Percy had just winked at him. “You know… Like, somebody to take on a few dates, and to walk around with afterwards…” Nico swallowed, and became very aware of Percy’s hand on his. 

“That sounds… Nice,” Nico said, his voice strained. “Do you have someone in mind?”

“I don’t know.” Percy shrugged. “I think I do, but I’m not yet sure if that person would want to… How about you?” Percy shifted in his seat; so that he was leaning forward, and retracted his hand from Nico’s to scratch his head. Nico bit his lip before responding.

“I dunno.” Nico shrugged. “I mean… You know me… I don’t really do a whole lot of meeting people…” 

“You don’t have to do a lot of meeting or talking to people to have someone you like,” Percy pointed out. “Do you like someone? That’s the question.” Nico swallowed.

“Yeah,” he said finally. “I guess I do.” He bit his lip again, watching Percy’s reaction. 

“So have you done anything worth talking about in the past six months?” Percy asked, changing the subject. Nico was relieved. 

“Not really.” Nico shrugged. “Just boring stuff as one of the ambassadors between the camps. I mean, Annabeth could probably tell you more. She does more work than I do. Probably because she can see Reyna pretty often. I’m more of a consultant, sharing my insights here and there. I just let them make most of the decisions. It’s nothing huge.”

“What do you guys do exactly, though?” Percy asked. 

“You’ve probably heard Annabeth explain it,” Nico said, shaking his head. “She knows how to explain it better than I can.”

“I want to hear it coming from you,” Percy replied. Nico took a moment to gather his thoughts.

“Well, we’ve been considering doing sort of an exchange program, like with schools, except with the camps. We want to get accustomed to each other, and learn how to collaborate better. We want to make sure that we are allies in case some new threat comes up later on,” Nico explained. 

“Exactly how far does ‘later on’ go?” Percy asked.

“We don’t know. A threat could pop up a week from today, a month, six months, a year, fifty years, a hundred… We really don’t know,” Nico replied. “But we want to be ready when it does. From what it looks like, we—the demigods—will be ready as allies when something does come up. Not only are the two camps banded together, but the Hunters of Artemis and the Amazons are all allied with us. The camps and the girl groups are more off in their two sections, but that’s kind of a natural thing.” Nico shrugged. “The important thing is that we are allies.” Percy nodded.

“Yeah… In the Titan war, it was nice having the Hunters helping us. With the Giant war, it was nice having the Amazons and Hunters on our side. With whatever’s next, the four of us together will probably be the greatest alliance ever,” Percy commented. 

With that, the two sat in awkward silence, having run out of things to talk about. 

After a few minutes, Nico found a nice, normal, topic that he wished he’d thought of before.

“So, what’s it like, being on your school’s swim and water polo teams?” Nico asked. Percy grinned a crooked grin, and Nico felt a tug in his gut. The good kind, that came with warmth and happiness.

“It’s great,” Percy commented. “I made the paper with both. I made MVP for both. They said I’m a natural.” Nico laughed at the twinkle in Percy’s eye.

“Of course you are,” he teased. Percy laughed with him. 

In that moment, Nico knew that he wanted this to last an eternity. He was with Percy, and the two of them were having fun, and enjoying each other’s company in a kind of romantic setting. Hopefully everything would turn out fine in the end, and Nico wouldn’t screw this up.


	4. Chapter 4

“Woa-”

“Nico! We’re gonna be late!” Percy shook Nico’s shoulder and the other boy tried to shove him out of the bed. Why did Percy have to disturb this wonderful cold, cozy morning sleep?

“If I recall correctly, I don’t have school today, Perseus.” Nico wanted to sound serious by using Percy’s real name but he was too sleepy so maybe that was not effective. He grabbed the nearby pillow and covered his face with it. Percy slowly yanked the soft thing out and Nico sunk right in the blankets.

“Nico. Nico. Nico.” The son of Poseidon decided to whisper into Nico’s ear, which is totally a dumb idea anyway but it worked like a splash of cold water to the obsidian-eyed. The raven-haired sprang up from his position, hands flying up to cover his reddening ear.

“You told me yesterday we would leave at half past seven,” Percy told him, eyeing the clock. It was five to seven.

“J-Just let me brush my teeth.” Nico scrambled his way out of bed and shuffled into the bathroom, trying to keep calm.

If not for Percy having packed all their stuff before waking Nico up, they would have been late. After a quick breakfast, they checked out of Atanya and Marni drove them to Tanah Lot, a beautiful temple. Nico wanted to take Percy to Uluwatu first but yesterday in his restless dreams, he had been brought to his father’s palace. The god of the Underworld had a serious conversation with him and Nico had to change the schedule. 

_”There’s a reason behind this trip, Nico.” His father was sitting on his throne, souls trying to escape his suit. Hades picked a business suit for no reason and Nico found that funny. However, he kept his composure._

_”Yes, father.”_

_”You must have been aware of the fact that we Greeks are not the only mythical ones to exist.” Hades swatted his hands, as if wanting to go straight to the point. “Nico, Bali was where the largest monsters of Asia assemble. There is one place that is surrounded by something even greater than The Mist.”_

_Nico shifted uncomfortably._

_“I need you to get rid of the Great Snake at the temple of Tanah Lot. Which, I believed, is included in your schedule?”_

_”Yes, of course.”_

_”Your sword is in your backpack. I hope you finish the purpose of this trip.”_

This was not how he had planned the trip to be but he was using his father’s bank account so he couldn’t just refuse. Nico tried to figure out why he had to kill The Snake. Why not something else? What does something greater than the Mist had to do with this trip?

However, he didn’t think much of it and decided to just comply. He didn’t tell Percy about this, though, in fear of ruining the trip which was supposed to mean ‘fun’ and not ‘get rid of the Great Snake at the temple’.

Percy was dozing off again, but Nico couldn’t sleep so he took his time to look at the older boy. Last night he hadn’t got much sleep. Maybe it was due to the fact that they were sharing a bed, but Nico considered himself not that childish, so, no. Lying back-to-back with Percy, he thought about how the green-eyed clapped a hand over his (not so different, still the same level of childish) when he told Nico he had interest in someone. Could it be that Percy had figured out that Nico liked him and tried to comfort him over the fact that the son of Poseidon was not interested?

“I’m fine with that.” He shrugged. “As long as he sticks around.”

It sounded so uncertain.

 _He_ sounded so uncertain.

 

They arrived at the temple and Marni told them to go back to the car when they felt like going to Bartur. After that, the short man sprinted to where his friends were waiting for him, spilling a bunch of Balinese words that they didn’t understand. Nico chuckled to himself; the people here are just full of beans.

Mount Batur is an inactive volcano but Nico focused on the Tanah Lot temple first.

“This place looks amazing! Annabeth would have loved this!” Percy complimented, eyes scanning the rock-carved gate. The swift but delicate shaping of the waves surrounding the head of the dragon created a vivid effect of the creature emerging from the sea. There were many different gates on the path to the beach where the island lays. On the island, there was a small temple and Nico could see lines of tourists wading towards the entrance.

“Tanah Lot – Land of Sea. That explains the statues and sculptures,” Nico told the older boy. “Excellent bas-reliefs.”

“How long did it take people to carve this?” Percy exclaimed, eyes squinted due to the sunlight.

“No one knows, the local people said it was kept a secret back then to protect Dang Hyang Dwi Jendra.” 

“Who?”

“A priest who was venerated for having spread the religion of Hindu,” Nico answered, feeling a bit nervous as they were about to touch on the subject that was related to snake. According to the local people (he asked when Percy was buying sunscreen), the priest had ‘created’ snakes to be the guardians and protectors of the temple. He would have trouble knowing which one was the Ular Besar (Great Snake, according to the locals).

“Cool.”

“Would you like some flowers?” A feminine but tired voice startled both of them. 

The short, dark-skinned lady was standing behind them, her hands holding a basket full of Plumerias. Nico squinted and looked closer to find out that they were actually pin-bobs with the flowers attached on them. The flowers vary in different sizes and colors. Percy yelped with excitement and Nico found that very, very cute.

“Buy some flowers,” the lady added, knowing that she had captured their interest.

Nico scanned other tourists and saw that every tourist had a flower tugged behind their ears. The girls are undeniably beautiful but guys also put the flowers in their hair, too. Nothing to be shy, right?

But before he could pay for the two flowers, Percy already tugged a flower behind Nico’s ear, making him blush. The green-eyed grinned, doing the same with his flower, too. The white flowers were small, but Percy looked really, really cute with his eyes shining so bright. The lady thanked them and Nico asked Percy how he got the rupies to pay for the pin-bobs. And Percy told him he woke up early that morning so he went out to exchange some money and Nico wondered what Percy had done when he was still asleep.

They walked out to the shore where a lot of tourists taking pictures and shouting out to each other. The beach couldn’t be described as sandy because of the Tufa rock created by lava being cooled down by the sea millions of years ago. Basically people were walking on Tufa slabs instead of sand. Everything was going fine for Nico, he hadn’t seen any sign of the Great Ular, and Percy was taking so many pictures that Nico was sure there’s a picture of himself tripping over a slab.

“Careful!” Percy shouted out to him.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Nico turned and saw a large cave with a small, rusty sign that said ‘Ular Besar – Do not go inside’. He almost wanted to let out a laugh.

“Nico, are you hurt?” Percy rushed to his side but Nico stood up immediately, not wanting to let Percy see the small sign in front of the cave.

“Percy, would you mind buying me some bandages?” Nico forced himself to stand up straight but his knee hurt. This was the only chance to kill the Ular and to get Percy away from the mission.

Percy kneeled down in front of him and frowned at the gash on his knee. “Do you need me to carry you on my back?”

“No, I’ll just sit on that rock right there,” Nico said, trying not to hiss. It hurt more than expected, which meant he was going to fight the monster not in his best condition. “Percy, take your time. Buy me some ice cream, too?”

“Sure.” Percy ran towards the nearest gate but he kept looking back at Nico so the younger had to refrain from running to the dark, unfriendly cave until Percy couldn’t be seen in the batch of tourists. 

Nico adjusted the straps of the backpack he was wearing and rushed to the cave. Some tourists looked at him concerned but then stopped paying attention and went on with their sightseeing. He sneaked in to the entrance of the cave and could already smell the scent of a monster. It was not an ancient one but the thick sweet smell of insects sent chills up his spine. He fumbled through the backpack and found a flashlight. Before turning it on, he carefully unsheathed his sword. Using a flashlight could help him find the snake but it also meant attracting its attention. Nico couldn’t risk that because he was already hurt.

A hiss came right behind him and Nico spun around, alert. He realized he was having disadvantages because the Ular Besar could have been used to the dark and knew where to hide. 

“I am the son of Hades. I am used to the dark, too,” Nico thought to himself, feeling braver.

A wet sound of a creature slithering on the cold, rough ground attracted his attention and Nico was getting tired of its toying. He slowly sank in the dark, eyes scanning for the creature. As if feeling the disappearance of its enemy, the snake stopped hissing and moving to wait for the first blow.

After moment of deadly silence, he finally caught a glimpse of a tail. There was a blade attached to the tail so it sparked up in the dark whenever the snake carelessly dragged its tail across the rock surface. Nico found it hard to breathe; the sickly sweet scent was getting thicker and thicker by the minute.

He wanted to end this quickly; it was getting more difficult for him. Nico exhaled shakily but before he could step out of the shadows, the snake did something stupid. It slithered across the wall right where he was standing, unaware of him merely resurfacing from the dark. Nico yelped and was immediately given an ugly gash on his upper arm. He threw the flashlight at the creature and it magically switched on.

The Ular Besar as beautiful in a deadly way; the only thing scary about it was its size. It was so enormous that it could wrap itself around the temple on the island outside. Its eyes were dull, as if tired of living for centuries but every single scale on its body was glowing green. It was abnormal that they didn’t reveal the snake to Nico sooner. The creature looked calm, if not bored, and Nico was even more worried.

He tried to cut off the tail but then missed and received another cut on his forearm. The situation was getting worse for him quickly and the demigod of the Underworld couldn’t risk letting the Ular hurt other tourists.

“Why do I have to kill this thing?” Nico ducked as the snake swatted its tail again, this time more precisely. “What’s so special about it?”

The snake hissed angrily and bared his fangs, charging Nico upfront but the son of Hades jumped aside in time and slashed down its body. He almost thought he missed again because there was no blood oozing out but the snake thrashed painfully so he figured it worked.

“The snake is said to be the protector of the temple. If I get rid of it, what would happen to this place?”

The snake recovered faster than expected, attempted to squash him in a loop but Nico managed to jump out of it. However, he lost his balance and fell, the Stygian sword clanked and inconveniently slid across the stony surface, away from him.

“Nico!” Percy’s angry voice echoed through the cave and the younger was half glad, half wanting to swear.

“Percy!” he cried out and saw Riptide being thrust at the Ular. It must have wounded the target as the creature let out a terrible sound similar to a shriek. It hit Percy with the tail and the son of the sea was sent outside the cave on his back but he stood right up.

“Nico! Come here!” Percy shouted, raising both hands to gain control of the salt water beneath them.

“I can’t! We have to kill it!”

“Why?”

Nico tried to reach for his sword but Percy had already created a huge wall of water, separating the wounded demigod and the giant serpent. The creature looked confused and tried to break the wall by pushing against it but Percy was putting up a forceful fight.

“Percy!”

“You shut up right now!” Percy growled, leaving no room for arguments. Nico shut his mouth and crawled toward the sea demigod.

The wall of water started to push the Ular back in the cave.

Percy pushed forward and the water squished the giant snake against the back of the cave, the creature desperately trying to escape and slashing the blade uselessly at the water wall. Nico watched in horror as Percy gritted his teeth and released the final blow, smashing the wall of water at the serpent one last time. The Ular went slack and slumped down, its body stopped moving after a few twitches. Nico looked down with an unexplainable heavy heart but Percy just kicked it coldly, touching his pocket to check if Riptide was there.

“Percy-”

“Don’t talk to me, Nico. Your dad told me everything,” Percy snapped at him, throwing Riptide away pointlessly.

“I’m sorry, Percy.”

“Why did you go off killing it alone? Didn’t you know I was worried?” Percy faced him, looking rather shaken. “Why didn’t you tell me? We could have defeated it together!” The green-eyed kicked the limp body of the snake again. “Or maybe you don’t trust me enough with your father’s secret mission? Maybe I’m too stupid to understand!” Nico couldn’t bring himself to look Percy in the eyes, he had no idea Percy would think so. Trust issue was always a problem between them and he had just worsened it.

“I thought that it would ruin the trip if you know we have to kill monsters again.”

Percy didn’t reply. He collected Nico’s soaking backpack and Stygian sword without a word or even a look at their owner. Nico followed him outside the cave, feeling terrible.  
They walked by the tourists who were still cheerful and carefree, unaware of any changes in their surroundings. Percy stepped in the ankle-deep water and Nico followed although he knew that he would hate his wet shoes later. The temple is above another cave but Percy ignored them and kept climbing until they reached the ledge. Dark, blue waves kept crashing against rocks as if daring them to jump.

“Take my hand.” Percy simply said, not turning around. So they were about to jump.

Nico looked at him one more time, hand slowly reaching out to Percy. The older demigod didn’t look like a mad man, if not tired. The Plumeria was still behind his ears and he had a small cut on his face.

No one saw the two boys who jumped off the ledge.

When they emerged, Nico realized they were no longer at the beach of Tanah Lot. He looked at Percy questioningly but the green-eyed shook his head. He took hold of Nico’s arm and manipulated the water to heal the wounds. The small stream crawled up to his arm and washed over the bleeding cuts. It hurt a little but then the pain became dull and they were just white scars. Nico whispered almost inaudibly, “Thank you.”

Percy sat down on the rock next to him and looked out to the sea. “Let’s just not talk for a while, Nico.”

Nico nodded, and kept his distance. The sea foam looked strangely white like that of toothpaste and the sun was up high. It must have been noon already. Above of them was another temple and according to Nico’s calculations, that temple had to be Uluwatu. It didn’t matter anymore.


	5. Chapter 5

The silence was killing Nico. He and Percy weren’t talking. They’d been like this for a while, just sitting there in the cool air, watching the waves roll in and out. It was relaxing, but Percy looked kind of angry, and that killed the mood. 

This wasn’t one of the comfortable silences where neither party felt that they really needed to talk nor was it one of those awkward silences where neither knew what to say next. This was an empty space, void of communication, where both parties were isolated from each other mentally. It felt as if there was a giant brick wall between their minds.

Nico previously hadn’t dared try to talk to Percy. He knew what the son of Poseidon could get like when he was angry.

He hoped that enough time had passed so that it was acceptable to try to talk to Percy. He turned his head to look at him, gathering up the courage. 

“Percy,” Nico said softly. “C-Can we talk now?” The older boy looked to him, and sighed.

“Yeah, but can I go first?” he asked. Nico nodded. “I’m sorry, I overreacted.” Percy looked down at his lap. “I shouldn’t have been so harsh. I was just… I was just worried.” He gave a lopsided half-grin-half-grimace. “I guess that’s my fatal flaw coming into play. I was ready to rip the heart out of that thing with my bare hands, strangle it, cut it into pieces, and burn it because you got hurt. But I’m calm now, I guess.”

“I’m sorry for not telling you where I was going, and what I was doing.” Nico found it hard to meet Percy’s eyes. “I should have just told you. I was an idiot, thinking that I could deal with the snake on my own, quickly, without you finding out. I should have known that my father would tell you.” He smiled bitterly. 

“The truth? I would have done the exact same thing,” Percy confessed. “I guess I know how my friends and loved ones feel when I do something idiotic like that. I shouldn’t have been so harsh on you. People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw rocks, eh?” Nico snorted.

“Yeah.” He glanced up to look at Percy’s face. 

“Now I know that I shouldn’t worry the people I’m with when I do that.” Percy’s voice got quieter. “Nico, I was really worried.”

“I know that I shouldn’t have done that to you.” Nico sighed. “And I’m sorry.”

“While I was getting bandages, I ran into your father.” Nico cringed as Percy said this.

“Whatever he said, I’m sorry,” he blurted out. Percy chuckled.

“I wasn’t finished,” he said, a grin taking place on his lips. “Anyway, Hades told me that he’d intended for the two of us to work together to kill the Ular, but you’d gone to do it alone. I was shocked, but then I knew that I had to go help you if your father was telling me this. He then rudely asked why else he would give you the money for this trip for both of us if he wanted you to do it alone, and called me a few rude things in Ancient Greek. Then he left, and I took that as my signal that I should go after you, which I did. And you know the rest.” Nico groaned covering his face.

“Oh, gods…” He moaned. “I’m so sorry about him.” Percy merely laughed.

“It’s fine,” he assured Nico. “I’m used to it.”

“Are you still mad?” Nico asked.

“I’m not pleased that you tried to defeat a monster without me and got hurt, but no, I’m not mad anymore,” Percy assured him, his hand sneaking over to Nico’s, which rested by the younger boy’s side. The older demigod’s hand covered it, and the two clasped hands.

Nico bit his lip, and with his other hand, reached to scratch the back of his neck. 

“I’m glad you’re not angry anymore,” Nico murmured. Percy turned to look Nico in the eyes.

“It’s not easy to stay mad at you, Nico.” Percy smiled faintly. Nico bit his lip again. 

“Should… Should we head back?” He asked.

“Yeah… We probably should… Marni must be worried,” Percy said, smiling wider at Nico. The two hopped down from the rock and began the trek back up the cliff.

The two were winded by the time they got back up. Nico’s pants were wet, but luckily, they were black, which made it far less noticeable. The same problem was with his shirt, though that was harder to hide because it stuck to his skin. Percy decided, since his clothes were completely dry, that he should walk in front of Nico, but hold his hand so that they didn’t get separated.

Most people, if they did stare, focused on the fact that they were holding hands. Nico blushed when they realized that this was what they were looking at. They probably thought that he and Percy was a couple… He wished that were true.

When they finally found Marni, the man asked them where they’d been, and informed them that they’d been gone for over an hour. Percy and Nico exchanged guilty looks when they heard this. They apologized for making him worry, and explained that they hadn’t been very aware of the passage of time. Marni merely laughed at this and said that being young was for having fun and enjoying yourself. 

In the back of the car, the two of them stayed holding hands, but for no reason either of them specified as they gazed out of their respective windows. They didn’t need to look at each other. They were closer now. After Percy had saved Nico’s butt from the Ular, and the two had an honest heart-to-heart, of course they were closer. Why wouldn’t they be? Nico wondered what kind of potential this newfound closeness had. The kind that would let him have what he wanted, a romantic relationship with Percy. Or would it leave him stuck at the sidelines as a mere friend again?

When that thought occurred, Nico felt a sinking feeling in his gut, but pushed it away. Right there and then, he would live in the moment with Percy holding his hand. There was no place or time he’d rather be than right there. Tired as he was, the raven-haired closed his eyes less than a minute and sleep had already stolen the moment away from him.


	6. Chapter 6

To his surprise, Percy bought him a shirt while he was asleep.

“What’s this for?” Nico asked, holding the white shirt with coconuts on it in front of him.

“It’s getting cold and you’re still wet,” Percy simply answered as he rummaged through his blue backpack.

Nico shuddered because it was really, really cold and Percy’s answer only helped to acknowledge the chilly air. Marni asked them whether the two wanted him to turn on the heater so Percy said yes and it felt much better in the small car. However, Nico really wanted to put the shirt on. He appreciated Percy buying him a white shirt and couldn’t wait to get rid of the wet, black shirt which only worsened the cold.

“So I guess I should turn around?” Percy asked, already looking out at the side window. The tip of his ears went red and Nico turned his back to Percy, not pulling the shirt over his head before checking his side window to see if Percy was staring (which was ridiculous). A little annoyed at his hair for getting in his eyes, Nico blew it away from them to continue changing his shirt and heard Percy suck in a breath behind him. Nico glanced at the window again, confused because Percy didn’t even turn around.

Then it hit him that if he could see Percy through the clean side window then Percy probably saw him, too. He pulled the shirt down immediately and both of them sat in embarrassment.

Only when they arrived at their next location did they actually admired the mountainous scenery of the inactive volcano together. The thin layer of fog cannot hinder the powerful image of the once destructive volcano. Although the vegetation had regained their liveliness and unstoppable force of survival, they still failed to cover up the areas that were marked destroyed for centuries.

After Marni had reconfirmed that the restaurant was exactly the one Nico requested for, they invited him to have lunch with them but the man told them he had to fetch something for his friends and told them he would be back after twenty minutes. Percy nudged slightly at Nico and they stepped inside, hand-in-hand, welcomed by the tasty and desirable smell of food.

Nico couldn’t say that he had a particular liking for buffet but he got the excitement from Percy, whose almond-shaped eyes lit up as soon as he saw the food stalls. The son of Hades let his friend pick the food but accompanied him nonetheless to lend a hand with the plates. They chose the table next to the windows, wanting to enjoy the view while eating.

Realizing he was starving, the son of Hades heard rumbling noise in his stomach but before he could apologize for it, Percy took a bite of the dumpling on his plate and moaned loudly. A bright wake of red spread across their faces, from ear to ear. Nico started eating quickly and Percy gulped down his glass of water with remarkable speed.

After fifteen minutes of viciously devouring the food on their plates, the two boys wondered if Nico’s mission had anything to do with another secret plan of Hades.

“I still don’t get why the snake had to be killed,” Nico said, after a spoonful of rice.

“Maybe your dad wants to destroy the temple.”

“Then he could have just asked your father to help. I bet Poseidon has much to repay, anyway.”

“True.” Percy munched on his food. “It could be that your father wants to reclaim something personal like a weapon or some kind of treasure.”

“Possible.” Nico nodded. “But if so, he would have asked Hazel to help us.”

“The treasure thingy is too much of his Roman side. Think about something death-related then.”

Nico’s onyx eyes widened. “Sisyphus!”

“What?!”

“Remember the dude with the rock when we went to find my father’s sword with Thalia?”

“Well, yeah. He impressed me with the ability to swear in fifty languages.”

Nico rolled his eyes. “He cheated Death. And I doubt that the Ular was merely protecting the Temple. It could have been protecting-”

“A zombie,” Percy deadpanned. “A zombie priest.”

“I would go for ‘undead’, but you got the point.”

They stared out of the window, watching the sunlight spread on the mountains around Bartur like honey, slowly dripping down to the ground.

“Isn’t it funny how many centuries have come to pass but Life still failed to defeat Death?” Nico asked, looking at the gaps of the trees.

“I believe that…” The son of Poseidon looked straight into Nico’s eyes. “There’s life under layers of soil down there, waiting to sprout years later.”

Nico had the feeling that there was something more behind the meaning of Percy’s words.  
Leaving Kuta for Ubud, Nico found that nature and humans seemed to be more harmonious on their path. There was no such thing as conquer or defeat as if Ubud was a dream city usually seen in fictional movies. In fact, it felt like the artifacts were being slowly eaten by the forest.

Wow. With that way of describing flora, no wonder Persephone hated him.

With the belief that he was free from motion sickness, Nico stared at the side windows again, seeing pretty shops decorated with vintage that sold woodcrafts and jewelries. He would definitely buy Hazel and Reyna those wooden horses and his friends some bracelets and other cool stuff this place provided. The pottery here must have constantly gone under the hammer all the time since they have spectacular and metaphorical images of nature and humans. In addition, the use of colors was rather impressive. Percy would love the wind bells over there with their joyful sounds. Said boy was leaning against him now, lulled to sleep after lunch by the cool air of the mountains, which seemed evanescent as the city gave out some kind of summer heat.

No sooner had they arrived than Percy woke up and saw how terrible Nico look. Stupidly (and somewhat funny to him), the son of Hades found that he could still suffer from motion sickness and was more nauseous than ever. Not wanting to vomit, he wearily waved goodbye to Marni since the driver had to return to Kuta. Percy shook hands with the short man and gave him a packet of biscuit as a thank-you gift. The already familiar car drove off down the hilly path, leaving a feeling of uncertain reunion.

“Don’t try to speak,” Percy warned him, grabbing his arm. “You’ll puke.”

Nico frowned at the choice of words but he latched onto the other’s arm as if it were his life. The green-eyed handled the two bags and they slowly climbed up the stairs, leading to where they thought the receptionist was. A big man who provided the opposite impression to that of Marni greeted them in front of the main cabin.

“Hello! Please come in and have a seat.” He helped Percy with the bags and introduced himself as ‘Wayan’ which translated into ‘first child’ in Balinese. The son of Poseidon stepped up to the confirmation and check-in procedure in place of Nico, who felt too sick to even move fast. Their luggage was carried to their villa first and Wayan told them to decide when they would want to go downtown to visit the markets and gave them a bunch of brochures. A family waved at the middle-aged man so Wayan grabbed his car keys and said goodbye. The woman at the counter then gave them the keys to their villa and rushed outside, too, leaving the two boys alone.

“Do you want some water?” the son of the sea asked when he gave the keys to Nico.

Nico shook his head and tried to get up but his eyes must have shown how he resented moving right then so Percy crouched down in front of him. He made a sound of confusion and the son of the sea motioned him to get on his back. Nico arched an eyebrow, despite the hatred he had towards his condition because was Percy seriously going to give him a piggy back ride?

“Come on, Nico!” Percy urged, but then the guy hesitated. “I mean, if you’re comfortable enough with this.”

“Don’t mind me then.” Nico sighed and slowly held on to the firm shoulders.

The son of Hades tried to distract himself from the long-lasting motion sickness by thinking of the scenery around but there was nothing but the sounds of children shouting and laughing happily in different villas. He remembered that there were totally five villas in the area, managed by the family of Wayan as he was told in the e-mails.

_“It’s funny,”_ Nico thought to himself, _“Who would’ve thought years later, Percy Jackson would give me a piggy back ride.”_

It was mysterious how things worked. When he ran away from Camp Half-Blood years ago, Nico di Angelo believed he would never forgive Percy Jackson. Then many things had happened that led the Ghost King assuming that Percy would never want to trust and befriend him again. The Underworld demigod built up a wall, thinking that he needed no one other than the dead. But then he found another sister whom he loves with all earnestness and loyalty, gained friends through the Giant War. And now, he was carried by Percy Jackson on his back. It was funny and amazing how things would turn 180 degrees, no matter how long the progress took.

Nico chuckled out loud, feeling light-headed and the sickness lessened a bit. 

“You know, I really like the sound of your laughter,” Percy said in all of a sudden.

“Thanks,” the son of the Underworld replied, not caring enough to be embarrassed. It was time for him to stop being flustered and shy when complimented. “Am I too heavy?”

“Nope,” Percy said with a grunt, which told the opposite but they had finally found their villa, which lay humbly with pots of roses and bluebells in front of it, among the bigger ones.

“Okay, you can put me down now, Perce.” 

“No, not until we get to the bed,” Percy said stubbornly. “And since when did you start calling me ‘Perce’?”

“Uh… I don’t remember?” Nico asked then handed the key to his friend.

The first thing Nico saw as they passed the small gate of the villa was the pool. A small, clean pool with a sculpture of a girl, holding a flower in her hands, enhanced the garden. There were banana and papaya trees with some strange flowers surrounding her and the walls were dominated by various vines. The kitchen could be seen and people can walk straight from it to the garden. The place looks foreign but comfy in strange a way. Percy found a door in the kitchen that led to their bedroom and carefully approached it. Nico’s legs seemed to be paralyzed and the other demigod had to nudge him slightly so he would slide off of Percy’s back. His motion sickness became fainter but Nico still wanted to have some sleep. The son of Hades pulled the cover up and sank into the mattress, sleep defeating him before he got the chance to thank Percy.

 

Their luggage had been brought to the bedroom by the time Nico woke up and Percy’s backpack was lying open as if he had rummaged through it again. The son of Hades tasted bitterness in his mouth so he scanned the room in search for some water. He found a glass of juice on the nightstand with a neatly folded piece of paper that read: “Please drink me!”  
Feeling like an Alice, he hopped down from the bed to find his White Rabbit.

It was quite easy to find the water demigod since there was a pool in the villa. As Nico stepped out of the bedroom to the garden, it dawned on him that it’s the evening already. The sky was as dark as black ink and the only source of light came from the orange bulb in a corner of the garden. Its warm light revealed a body at the bottom of the pool, illuminated by the rippling and unstable reflection of the light. The person had his arms wrapped around himself and didn’t seem to move. Definitely Percy.

Suddenly, Nico wanted to do something crazy, such as surprising Percy by shadow traveling into the pool and it was a good idea at first, to be honest. Nico had no idea since when he had such thoughts and wondered whether he would do something that impulsive in the future just to realize he had been doing such things for a long time, ever since he proposed to the sea demigod about a swim in Styx.

The raven-haired held his breath and aimed for the shadows at the bottom of the pool. He emerged from the darkness faster than expected, the cold sensation of water wrapping him up rather forcefully. The same mistake in the Ular cave was made since it was not until Nico had been in the pool that he noticed how his vision was blurred underwater. 

Trying to make out Percy’s silhouette, Nico wanted to laugh out loud when he saw Percy wearing swimming boxers. Why bother changing into them when you have an ability to dry your clothes? Nico couldn’t think of anything clever to do now, so he clapped his hand over where he assumed Percy’s eyes were.

The older demigod yelped (can you even yelp underwater?) and his hands flew to grab Nico’s. He stopped struggling and Nico figured that Percy must have recognized the skull ring on his finger. He was then dragged along as the green-eyed surfaced from the water. Percy’s hand was on his shoulder while the other one at his waist. Nico inhaled deeply, who knew how long he had been holding his breath. Percy exclaimed with disbelief, “Di Angelo, that is one of the most ridiculous things you have done!”

Nico replied after a string of laughter. “Did I scare the schist out of you?!”

“No,” Percy said, unimpressed. “How did you even get into the pool?!”

“Shadow travel,” Nico answered. “Why did you put on boxers?”

“So you would rather me be naked,” Percy joked. Nico had a stern expression on his face since he had learned how to hide his blush by that. Additionally, if he deadpanned, no one would think he was embarrassed.

“I don’t see why not.” 

“Oh…” It could be that Percy didn’t expect such answer. “Anyway, I wear them because I like to. I can just jump into the pool fully clothed but that would be no fun. It’s like you would love to have some fries but it would be even better to have some ketchup along.”

Nico nodded, not minding their rather intimate position. He understood how fun it was to indulge himself a little with his powers, given that they partly caused the discrimination every children of Hades undertook. In fact, he was proud of the Underworld powers, as if he had some kind of love-hate feeling towards them. It seemed like he and Percy shared one thing in common, although every other demigod might share that one perk, too.

Percy stared into his eyes with a dreamy expression on his angled face and before Nico knew it, the boy in front of him leaned in to kiss him. Nico’s eyes widened in surprise and he didn’t respond to the kiss, which led to Percy slowly backing off after some desperate attempts, his eyes still closed. Nico felt like his feelings were ineffable, a heady mixture of happiness and uncertainty washed over him. 

This was what Nico had always wanted, he had dreams of such scenarios once in a while but right now voices were screaming in his head, arguing relentlessly. The loudest, most convincing of them all told the son of Hades that Percy owed him an explanation for his action. He couldn’t just kiss Nico like that without telling the onyx-eyed how he truly thought of him. Because the last thing Nico would want was to have something… not serious and inappropriate with the demigod in front of him.

It felt like eternity until Percy opened his loveable green eyes with the courage to look straight into Nico’s eyes again. However, no words managed to escape his kissable lips and Nico felt a pang of disappointment kicking in. He looked at Percy, hoping for a confession, an apology; so that he could explain that he had always felt the same for Percy. The green eyes were intent, but they didn’t utter what Nico needed so the Underworld demigod pushed their owner away and climbed up from the pool with one swift move.

“Let’s get dinner,” he said, unaware of how his cold and rough voice made the green-eyed flinch.


	7. Chapter 7

Nico felt righteous to make Percy suffer this kind of silence between them.

They hadn’t talked since last night and didn’t seem to go to any sooner since the Underworld demigod was determined not to breathe a word until Percy said something first.

Last night he had taken the couch, showing that this was truly a war. Waking up earlier than usual, he found that Percy didn’t sleep on the bed, too, as if the son of Poseidon felt too guilty to do so. The green-eyed was showing the sign of a cold during breakfast and Nico had no idea if he should just stopped and fussed over the guy for a while or just subtly buy some medicines and put them on the counter with a note.

“Please take me,” he wrote, remembering the juice he had drunk last evening when he folded the piece of paper and put it next to the medicine he bought.

Nico then proceeded to ask Wayan to take him to the Ubud Market because the son of Hades wanted to buy souvenirs for his sister and friends. The driver told him that he would pick Nico up with another couple after two hours and Nico thought that having a little time to himself now wouldn’t hurt.

The streets are so beautiful, there seemed to be no other word that could do the job better. They were small, but clean and adorned with many statues whether from the pagodas or the small temples. As a city of tourism, it was inevitable for Ubud to have many restaurants, so the smell of food with delicious, tropical spices was faint in the air. After streets full of shops, Nico finally found the market.

People here seemed very truthful and they always agree to lower the prices. It was safe to say that that was why the market attracted so many tourists. Nico made some good bargains when he bought Annabeth and Piper some vials of essential oils. The two wooden horses he spotted yesterday were actually the finest of the woodcrafts in that shop. He didn’t hesitate to purchase them and moved on to find something for Will and Jason, since Frank was given a small figure with a quiver and three arrows ready to be fired. Nico purposefully wanted to remind the new praetor of the time when he fought with the bow, given that Frank had chosen to fight with a spatha when he became praetor. Leo had a pair of sunglasses; Nico honestly had no idea what to give the tinker anymore.

When Nico spotted the wind bell, he wondered, if he gave it to Percy, what would it remind the sea demigod of? Would it be about the time when he failed to have a summer fling? Something told him that Percy wouldn’t be that shallow and Nico worried that he was more bothered by that thought than expected. 

Well, he should. After all, he was truly in love with the green-eyed demigod so his feelings for Percy were carefully clarified right before of the trip, and they were not just butterflies resurrecting in his stomach, not wistfulness, or regret. Definitely not the desperation to be in a relationship. They were the emotions harbored for the present; they motivated him to try again with Percy. Now that he fell for Percy again, knowing that the demigod was not just a hero. It was undeniable that Percy was a troubled teen, but so was Nico. As far as the son of Hades was concerned, he and Percy shared more than just one thing in common and although the dark past bonded them, Nico was determined to not let it hinder any possible chance in the future for his happiness.

In essence, Percy was a wonderful person who Nico wanted to stay beside for the rest of his life whether as a friend or something more than that. But fries with ketchup would be even better.

He chuckled to himself and bought the elegant bell. Suddenly feeling up to talking to Reyna, Nico rushed out of the market and found a coffee shop with a fish tank beside the empty table. He immediately jumped at the opportunity and after ordering some orange juice; he immediately tossed a drachma into the tank and asked to see Reyna. Plugging in his earphones as if talking to someone on the phone (Leo’s invention), the blurry image of a strongly-built girl slowly came into sight.

“Reyna.”

“Di Angelo.”

“Reyna,” he said, his voice softer.

“Nico.” The praetor’s expression softened and they smiled at each other, as if feeling a little bit silly with their solemn greetings.

“How’s your trip, lover boy?”

“Tsk, I need your advice.”

“Figures.” Reyna chuckled as she tugged a strand of hair behind her ear. “So, what happened?”

“He kissed me,” Nico said, his voice must have shown his frustration as the braided-haired girl frowned.

“Without any explanation?” Reyna rolled her eyes. “Sometimes I wonder if his cluelessness in love rubbed off on Annabeth. She knew everything, but sometime she just…had not the least idea!”

“Come on, Reyna.” Nico rolled his eyes, too. “We both know how much you enjoy making her blush.”

“If only you learned the art of it and used it on Percy. It’d be fun.”

“Until yesterday, I’m the one who blushed more.”

“That’s a given.”

“Now, what should I do?”

“Given that Percy is as frustrated as you are now, you should tell him how you feel. Demand him to explain. Tell him, he owes you that.”

“Okay. You’re the best, Reyna.”  
No sooner had Reyna’s image faded away in the tank did Nico hear the blood-curdling scream. It was not the sound any human or normal creature would make. Looking at his side, Nico wanted to curse for having forgotten his sword. Instinctively, he crawled under the table and stared out the door, seeing people run in terror while others in the coffee shop joined the run, too. He tried to estimate the size of whatever that was chasing them while looking around to find anything suitable to defend himself.

The monster made Nico feel the urge to fight it rather than the urge to hide. It came to Ubud definitely because of him. Through the window, he found that it was the same Ular that he fought in the cave, coming back to life once again. Having no weapon, it wasn’t wise to fight it alone so the raven-eyed attempted to call Percy but before he could even utter a word, something scaly had wrapped itself around his ankle. His chin collided with the ground and Nico couldn’t register what was pulling him out of the coffee shop. It couldn’t be the Ular because this thing’s size belied the Great Snake’s enormousness. 

Grabbing the leg of the nearby table, he shook it violently to struggle with whatever that persistent thing was, as a consequence, some items fell off the table including a knife. He was not great with daggers in combat but Nico had to make do with anything he had now.

Determined not to let his only weapon slip through his fingers, he tightened his hand around the knife even more and turned his head to face the monster. It was neither human nor animal, Nico’s specialty, an undead. Or should he say, two undead. The Ular appeared lifeless, its eyes dull and irresponsive. Standing on its head was a zombie dressed in tattered robes, mud plastered on them. Nico didn’t understand how it was possible to balance on the head of a moving creature and was taken aback as he looked at his ankle because the thing that wrapped around it was a snake…and a limb. 

To be more precise, the arms of the priest were scaly like the bodies of snakes and the snake heads were in place of the hands. The son of Hades had never seen such a thing before and failed to think of a strategy fast enough. The other snake-hand stretched and reached for his neck while Nico tried to break the grip around his ankle. He sliced at the snake-limb and the undead made an unnatural sound, the snake at the left sank its fangs into Nico’s arm flesh at the same time the priest reacted to the blow. Nico was pretty sure he screamed and the son of Hades almost dropped the knife but his right hand grabbed the weapon and managed to cut at the head around his ankle.

The Great Snake moved rigidly in a pointless attempt to attack Nico with its jaw and Nico realized that the priest’s legs were fused into the head of the Ular. Having found that weakness, Nico knew that he could attack the priest and the Great Snake so they wouldn’t be able to wreak havoc anymore. His left arm hurt extremely and some negative thoughts slipped into his mind, telling him that he would die right here since the chance of defeating this creature is undeniably low.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so if you guys have trouble imagining the priest, he's like Elastic Girl (The Incredible) with snakes for arms.


	8. Chapter 8

It was funny how he managed to find the weakness of the bizarre creature and gave up hope at the same time. That resulted in him staying frozen on the spot - his mind couldn’t come up with any solution for disconnecting the priest and the snake. Unlike what was supposed to happen in books when the protagonist’s life flashed through his eyes, where some kind of motivation from his family, friends, and love interest would help him regain the strength needed to defeat the villain, Nico’s mind went completely blank.

The priest finally uttered his first sentence since he caught Nico. “Son of Death, you have failed to take life away from me!” with the sound of a dry, disintegrating throat.

Nico jumped at the opportunity without fail. “How do you know who I am?”

“Scummy bastards coming from the Underworld to steal my soul! They do not know I am the eternal guardian of this island!”

“How dare you threaten the order of natural life?!” Nico tried to gain authority in his voice, hoping that he sounded righteous enough. “Who gave you the right to defy death?”

“I’m too important to the people on this island! I myself created a magical barrier that surrounded Bali, protecting them from various kinds of monsters.”

Nico turned his head as he tried to hide the smirk trailing on his face. There was a chance that he could convince the priest to put him down before anything else. Gathering himself some confidence, he shouted to the undead priest, “Hey! I have some information you might want to know! In fact, you’d die to know about it!”

The priest seemed outrageous; the Great Ular lowered its head as the priest silently ordered his serpent-limbs to tighten their grips around Nico, their fangs ready to sink deep into Nico again. The priest was standing in front of his ‘incompetent’ opponent, Nico, as the obedient Ular laid its head on the ground. Nico tried to move his arms, which were tightly bound to his body.

“Did you know that your magical barrier failed to surround the island and has retreated to surround Tanah Lot only?” his voice sounded accusing enough.

“Fallacy you utter!” the priest roared, and for a second, Nico thought it was funny how the old man in front of him had a floral way of speech.

“It’s true!” Nico protested, not letting fear slip in his voice. “Monsters are now being attracted to the island because your barrier proved useless!”

The grip of the limbs on him loosened for only a second then tightened around him even more. The priest howled indignantly then he glared at Nico, his eyes, or whatever are those inside the eye sockets, seemed to have a dull gleam. Nico feared what would happen to him, now that the person in front of him showed the sign of madness and desperation. 

“I will not have any of this nonsense! You’ll be swallowed wholly by the Ular!” 

Belying whatever the priest was ranting, the Ular shuddered and dropped dead. Nico couldn’t believe in his eyes when the arms of the priest started to lose the scales and rotten unnaturally rapid. He wiggled out of the loosening grip and stood up confidently with the knife in his hand. His enemy howled at the disintegrating arms in disbelief and frustration so Nico took the chance to stab him at his left ribcage, where the heart lay. 

Unlike the priest, who was surprised to see the weapon had sunk deep into his chest, Nico knew that it wouldn’t help defeating the undead at all. The priest was a _mania_ and Nico had had a rough guess on his weakness. However, he needed more confirmation.

“You see, even your magic betrayed you,” Nico said sternly. “The snakes no longer serve the right purpose so they returned to their inevitable death.”

“Impossible!” the priest cried out in desperation. Now that all the snakes had turned into dust, their master looked more vulnerable and weaker than ever. In fact, he was nothing but a skinny and quivering old man.

“Do you realize what have you become? Do you even remember your name?” Nico went on interrogating the man.

“It doesn’t matter!” the old priest hissed, his hands possessed an unusual pale color. “I must live to protect the island!”

“You know you’re lying, right?” Nico retrieved the knife and threw it away. He hoped that it would show the priest how the son of Death could easily defeat him without a weapon. “You’re only a _mania_ , you cannot protect anyone!”

Seeing that the priest had gone speechless, Nico continued. “Your barrier no longer protects the island. It only protects you from death. You are afraid of Death, your fear is what keeps you alive.”

The raven-eyed point his index finger at the priest, who had fallen down onto his knees. His fingertip touched the old man’s forehead as Nico whispered the final sentence. “Now you shall perish.”

The ground opened up in rifts despite the tiles and the cold light of purple rays shot up from the rifts. The sky went dark as if it were night already. The eyes of the priest were widely opened and he grabbed Nico’s shoulders, pleading with a hoarse and breathy voice. Nico looked at the _mania_ with an unmoved expression on his face. The unyielding ground had swallowed the priest up to his thighs and Nico slowly untangled the skinny fingers away from his shoulder, his facial expression softened as he said, “I promise you peace for your soul after Death.”

In spite of not knowing who the Death god was here in Bali, Nico knew there was one rule that applies to every _mania_ when they found serenity, they would not suffer punishment in their soul form. Only their bodies endured the eternal punishment. It was safe to promise that to the priest.

The ground returned to its normal state, not a single crack was evident on the tiles. The sky became clear enough for Nico to stare down at his dirty and battered appearance. His left arm was bleeding and nausea took over him when he saw two large bite marks. He tried to assure himself that there was no poison in the bites because the snakes were supposed to be dead a long time ago. Nevertheless he found an empty pharmacy and found some gauze to stop the bleeding. Wincing in pain as he poured some antiseptic on the wounds, Nico wanted nothing but to head back to the villa and lay down in the bed for another slumber.

He felt like dying when he finally collapsed on the bed after walking up to the hilly path. Nico wondered where Percy was but then his eyelids drooped down along with the sweats from his forehead.


	9. Chapter 9

He woke up next to Percy, who was wrapping both of his arms around Nico with his head pressed against Nico’s chest. Nico groaned and check his wounds, which must have been carefully treated since there were various bottles of disinfectants and nectar scattered on the bed. Even his sloppily wrapped gauze was replaced by another neat one. The son of the Underworld slowly sat up to find that Percy didn’t even remove his blue Converse as if he was in a rush.

“Percy.” Nico sighed and placed his hand on the other’s forehead. Percy still had a slight fever. He checked again by pressing his cheek against the warm forehead, the way Hazel usually did.

“No,” Percy answered sleepily. Nico chuckled and stroked the proud cheekbones tenderly, attempting to wake the son of Poseidon.

“What do you mean ‘no’, Perseus? Aren’t you hungry?”

Percy’s green eyes widened and he touched Nico’s face with both hands. Nico wondered what the characters in movies would think in such a situation because he didn’t understand why Percy would do that. The son of Poseidon pulled him into a hug after staring at his eyes with both hands at the sides of Nico’s face.

“I was so worried! Why didn’t you call me for help?” 

“Wait, you knew about the snake?” Nico asked in confusion.

“Wayan suddenly showed up and told me that everyone should stay in the villa. I asked why and he told me about a giant snake chasing people in the streets,” Percy explained, his hand still clasped in Nico’s. “I tried to find you but then it went dark so I thought that something terrible had happened to you.”

“No, nothing bad happened. I’d have called you if given the chance.” 

“Yeah, and I had no idea why I rushed back here but I was lucky to find you!” Percy exclaimed. Nico nodded and he touched his treated wounds again.

“Me too.”

“And I realized something,” Percy said, looking straight into his eyes. The green orbs had never been that intent. 

“Wha-” Nico was pulled into another hug before he could finish. Percy’s chin was resting on his shoulder now and somehow Nico knew Percy was closing his eyes as the other demigod sighed.

“I realized that I was extremely terrified and wouldn’t be able to come to my senses if something ever happens to you. That’s not something that happens all the time,” Percy went on. “Please believe me when I say this. I know that I’m in love with you now. I’m completely sure.”

“Percy.” Nico tried to convey his joy into words but nothing escaped him.

“Nico di Angelo, I’m in love with you.”

“Percy Jackson, I’m in love with you, too. I’ve been waiting for this moment for years.” Nico inhaled Percy’s unique scent, happiness slowly filling him up.

The scene of two boys hugging each other on the villa’s bed could be weird for anyone who might walk into their bedroom but Nico couldn’t think of anything else but the new feelings, knowing that they had mutual feelings for each other. He let his hands wander to Percy’s endearing face and gave him a slow, emotional kiss.

 

“I regret not having taken enough pictures with you!” Percy whined, as he sat on the edge of pool with his legs in the water. Nico sat right next to him but his legs were folded.

“Photos don’t matter as much as your confession. I should have taken you on some trips sooner,” Nico deadpanned, followed by Percy’s chuckle.

“You almost took me to China once, remember?”

“China, noted,” Nico said, then clasped his hand over Percy’s. “I’ve just found out why Bali attracts so many monsters.”

“There’s more?” the sea demigod put his phone down and listened to the boy beside him attentively.

“This place is strong with witchcrafts and magic.” Nico said, voice dripping with enthusiasm. “I think Hazel would someday be given a mission to travel here, too.”

“Yeah, I hope she goes with Frank.” Percy shrugged.

“So…Percy, are you sure you’re fine with keeping our relationship in the dark?” Nico asked uncertainly. 

“Of course I’m fine. I know that you’d want to make sure if this works before telling anyone.” Percy kissed his cheek contently. “Would you be my baby here in Bali?”

“Pedo.”

“Now that’s weird.”

“Love you anyway.”

“Love you, too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was a great journey and this is also my first collaborated fic. Special thanks to Laura (fri13girl), who's great with the emotional scenes and Lei (awkwardsleepyhead), my dear beta, for sticking to the guns and helping me finish this wonderful piece of self indulgence.


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